KATU Reporter (in 1970): ‘Everyone on site was covered in small particles of dead whale’

News crews in Southern California are in Malibu this afternoon as experts try to figure out how to get rid of a dead 41-foot, 20-ton Fin whale that washed ashore earlier this week. Here’s KCBS’s story on it. The next possible window for removing the whale is later this afternoon at high tide.

There’s a good chance crews will not employ the tactic used on an Oregon beach in 1970 when a half ton of dynamite was used to blow up a Pacific Gray whale.

Here’s how the story was reported by KATU reporter Paul Linnman, then a 23-year-old TV reporter, now a radio personality on KEX 1190 AM in Portland: “The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.” The man likes his alliteration.